Aston Villa are working on the ‘final details’ of a deal for Philippe Coutinho as the club look to sign the midfielder on a permanent basis.
Coutinho signed for Villa on loan during the January transfer window and has since impressed since returning to the Premier League, scoring four goals and providing three assists in 14 league starts for Steven Gerrard’s side.
Gerrard has openly discussed his desire to keep his former Liverpool teammate at the club beyond the end of the season and Fabrizio Romano is reporting that Villa are working on the ‘final details’ of a deal with Barcelona.
Aston Villa are working on final details to sign Philippe Coutinho on a permanent deal. Steven Gerrard says: "I can repeat I'm extremely keen to keep Coutinho here permanently, we’re trying and we're aligned". ⌛️🇧🇷 #AVFC
Final detail missing: payment terms. Work in progress. pic.twitter.com/49Shjhlmqd
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 11, 2022
Villa had a £33m fee included in the initial loan deal to sign the Brazil international, but various reports are suggesting the actual figure could be renegotiated to a lower sum as Barcelona look to remove Coutinho from the wage bill.
The Mail are reporting that Villa’s opening offer was around £12m and a deal is now ‘close’, with the Spanish side needing to offload the 29-year-old’s salary in order to find room to manoeuvre in the transfer market this summer.
Coutinho signed for Barcelona in a deal worth up to £142m from Liverpool in January 2018, but struggled to perform consistently during his time in Spanish football and spent the 2019/20 campaign on loan at Bayern Munich.
Villa are also interested in adding a defensive midfielder to their squad this summer amid uncertainty surrounding the future of Douglas Luiz and have been linked with Brighton’s Yves Bissouma and Leeds’ Kalvin Phillips.
